[HPforGrownups] Re: Death, where is thy...? -More Portraits

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 167269

> bboyminn:
> Once again, I am going to trot out a tired old theory
> of mine. I am absolutely sure I read this, but I have
> never been able to find it again, so maybe I just
> dreamed it. But real or dream, it does explain how
> a portrait can magically portray its subject.
>
> What I remember reading (whether real or in a dream) is
> that in the final process of animating the portrait,
> a piece of the subject is added; ie: hair, skin, blood,
> etc.... It is from that bit of the subject that the
> portrait draws the essence needed to recreate the
> character and personality of the subject. Remember
> this is magic, and they use of, say, blood could
> very easily have this effect.
>
> The second part is that, by way of analogy, the character
> in the portrait is like an actor playing a role. They
> can so so very convincingly, but there is a limit to the
> depth of what they know and how they can react. Speaking
> mostly of the more realized Headmaster portraits here,
> but this still applies to a lesser degree to general
> Living Portraits.
>
> They do have an 'essence' to draw on, but it is not
> mind, spirit, or soul. It is a script of sorts
> that is drawn from the living tissue added to the
> portrait by the living subject, and brought to life
> by the special unique magic that is used to animate
> Living Portraits.
>
> Again, while I'm sure I read this, in many years, no
> one has been able to verify it. Still again, whether
> real or a dream, it still make some logical sense as
> as a means to explain how the portraits can so
> accurately, yet with such limitations, portray their
> subject. The Living Portrait is drawing on a Life
> Script contained in the Living Tissue of the portrait's
> subject.
>
> For what it's worth.
>
> Steve/bboyminn

Shelley now:

This theory makes perfect sence to me, because we see multiple other times
where "the essance" of something added to the potion affects how that potion
behaves. Polyjuice potion, of course, needs a bit of the person to be
imitated to work, but we also see other ingredients used because of their
properties that it imparts to the end product. I'm at a loss to bring up
other examples in canon to explain in this post, but now my eye will look
out for them as I reread the books in preparation for Book 7. I am thinking
of all the ingredients that the Weasley twins used to concoct their magical
wares- clearly they understood this imparting of traits and exploited it
with varying degrees of ingredients to give just the right amount of end
effect. I can see the portraits that had been created with the stongest
amounts of flesh or tissue ingredients of the owner as having the greatest
degree of the owner's personality displayed in the final product.

Along these lines, clearly, LV wanted bits of his dead father, and blood on
an enemy, and a part of a follower because of the traits that those tissues
would impart to him, and I wonder what "essance" he then gained from each of
those people. For his father, we can say that he gained some of the good
looks back; from Harry he gained traits of Harry's blood (protection?) but
from Wormtail we have yet to see any of that essance manifest. I could be
wrong, and I am sure plenty here will take stabs at what that essance might
have been. It's got to be more than just "life" in that blood and body part,
for if that were true, any person's body parts would do. LV was careful to
pick exactly who fullfilled the parts of his spell/potion for his
restoration.

Shelley